Deborah Schoch

Deborah Schoch, senior writer for the CHCF Center for Health Reporting. specializes in topics tied to hospitals and health care delivery, aging, mental health and environmental health. She was a founding writer with the center’s pilot project. Schoch spent 18 years as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, reporting on the environment and public health. She wrote about E. coli food contamination in the Salinas Valley, asthma in Los Angeles, drought and mental health in Oregon and the loss of dark skies above Utah’s national parks. She earlier worked at the Rochester Times-Union, the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press and the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal. Schoch graduated from Cornell University and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1999-2000, studying environmental science, law and policy. She was a 2009 fellow at the MIT Knight Science boot camp on medical evidence.

[Related: Assisted living reform bills await Brown] The California Legislature has acted on 17 bills proposed this year to reform regulation of assisted living homes. This chart shows what bills legislators have passed or rejected, and which have been signed so far by Gov. Jerry Brown. STATE SENATE BILLS SB 895: PASSED. Oversight. Homes would have 10 days to fix problems found in state inspections. State would have to guide consumers to paper inspection reports ...

Ten bills that tighten state oversight of assisted living homes are headed to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature, the most significant overhaul since regulations were first enacted in 1985. One bill increases the maximum civil penalty to $15,000 from its current $150 if poor care leads to the death of an assisted living resident. Two bills require more rigorous training for the staffs at the 7,570 homes in the state, including 638 homes in ...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law a measure requiring for the first time that assisted living homes carry liability insurance. The measure mandates that the 7,500 such facilities in California, with beds for 176,000 seniors, must carry insurance by July 2015. It is the second of a package of 2014 assisted living reform bills that Brown has signed into law. The bill was opposed by owners of some smaller homes who fear the insurance ...

The maximum fine for health and safety violations at assisted-living centers would grow 100-fold under overhaul legislation approved by a key Senate committee on Thursday. The top fine is currently $150, even for violations resulting in the death of elderly residents, an amount criticized as too low in U-T Watchdog’s “Deadly Neglect” series last year. Legislation by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, R-San Diego, would increase the maximum fine to $15,000. His bill sailed through earlier legislative ...

A bill that would significantly raise fines on assisted living facilities that violate state law faces a showdown vote in Sacramento Thursday as key players seek a compromise to keep it alive. The measure would mandate civil penalties of up to $15,000 if a violation caused the death of a resident, and would impose $1,000 fines for a host of lesser violations. At present, the maximum fine the state can impose for any violation at ...

The state Assembly voted 69-2 Monday to require assisted living homes to carry liability insurance, a victory for Democratic Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, who spearheaded the bill as part of a legislative effort to improve care provided in such homes. The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, to be signed or vetoed. It is the second of 16 such bills to pass the Legislature, part of a landmark effort to overhaul residential care facilities for ...

STATE SENATE BILLS SB 894: License revocation: Sets guidelines for the Department of Social Services, or DSS, to follow when it suspends or revokes a facility’s license, with specifics on how to relocate residents. Author: Ellen M. Corbett (D-San Leandro) SB 895: Inspections: DSS would be mandated to do unannounced inspections at least annually, to be phased in over three years. Inspections are now required every five years. Author: Ellen M. Corbett (D-San Leandro) SB ...